The experiences in World of Warcraft through the eyes of a player that can't spend 10 hours a day raiding.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Heroics at about 60%

I was having a conversation with a few guildies last night, and I realized that I really haven’t completed a lot of the 5-man instances on heroic setting. I’ve completed all 15 of the expansion instances on normal mode, but only 9 or 10 of them on heroic. And the Underbog (being one of the 9 or 10), I’ve completed multiple times, but only when you could do the speed runs straight to The Black Stalker.

The guild mate I was talking to has completed all the instances on heroic except for two of them, I think. While that’s cool, I’m not 100% sure that’s really a goal of mine. Do I care that I haven’t killed Murmur on heroic? Is it really that important to free Thrall when the odds are even more against us? I’m exalted with all of the associated factions of those instances except for the Consortium. (More Heroic Mana Tombs anyone?) There aren’t really any upgrades in those other heroics for me. Yeah, I still get badges, but I can do that in the “easier” heroics just as easily. I don’t know. Where’s everyone else on this subject?

5 comments:

My thoughts up front for those of you who don't want to read all the stuff below: Heroics add a twist to refresh the life of dungeons, but don't add a lot of alure to people who don't need the gear. If you don't need anything from it, why go?

I'm trying to come up with a term that describes how I feel about dungeons and heroics.

The term "Dungeon Fatigue" comes to mind. It seems like Blizzard tries to encourage us to run the same dungeons over and over in the attempt to get phat lewt. (Remember the level 60 runs to Strat/UBRS/LBRS/Scholo) What you get is a lot of interest at first then it slowly tapers off as the repetiveness sinks in. Doing the same dungeon over and over starts to feel like work, when the game is supposed to be a stimulating escape or diversion.

The Heroics makes good reuse of the dungeons by increasing the difficulty level and also increasing the rewards. Heroics usually have one or two twists in it to make sure you know it's not normal difficulty. (Bosses have another ability or just hit really, really hard.)

Heroics don't completely erase dungeon fatigue due to the high similarity with the normal dungeon. I would argue that heroics can cause more fatigue since it is more difficult. In fact I believe they are all too difficult, too the point that I don't PUG them anymore.

So, to answer Leiandra's question about is it really important to do the heroics that are really hard or you haven't done, I would say measure the risk vs. the reward.

If you are a "collector" then maybe beating each heroic enhances the reward. You probably like getting exalted on all factions, finishing all quests (even the gray ones), and collecting every recipe (making sure you've made each one at least once during your skill-ups). This person is also known as a masochist.

I'm purely a 'materialist", so I go for loot rather than bragging rights. The reward is based soley on loot for me. If the loot isn't that great or you can get the same, if not better loot, in another instance of lesser risk, then it's a no-brainer to stay away from the tough instances and go for the easy ones.

I also go to help guildies out. Thanks again Leiandra for helping me out :)

I'd want to do them all probably once to see the "new content" but wouldn't go back unless:A) someone else needed help.B) I needed a droporC) A bunch of guildies say "hey, I haven't run X for forever, let's go do that!"

You need to do them all so you can adequately feel someone's pain when they say "Took us 4 hours to complete Heroic Shadow Labs!!" and so you know how fun it is to gather a million badges as all your gear is from Badges (boomkin, thanks Blizz)

Personally I think it's a good challenge, nothing like getting wasted by a 6 man pull in Heroic Shattered Halls / Shadow Lab to remind you that your not invincible.

Repeat trips to SP, UB and H Mech provide such a feeling. Unless your late night PUG'ing it :-)

Search This Blog

BlizzCon 2009

Mail To:

Subscribe To

About Me

I am the Guild Leader of Primogeniture, a raiding guild on Bronzebeard. Most of us have significant others and families, so we mostly devote our night hours (and lack of sleep) to working together. I've been playing for 3 years now, and have leveled multiple toons to cap.